Randy Ringhaver is Chairman & CEO of Ring Power Corporation, one of the largest Caterpillar dealers in the Southeastern United States. This family-run company was founded by his father L.C., or “Ring,” as he liked to be called, who eventually passed the company to Randy and his brother, Lance.
As one of the major Cat dealers, Ring Power sold a lot of new equipment, but it was Randy who saw the value of used assets when so many other dealers across the country dismissed used equipment as not worth the bother. In the 1970s a young Randy begin to give Ring Power’s Used Equipment department more attention. He saw independent brokers purchasing packages of old machinery trade-ins at low, wholesale prices, and reselling them for premium profits. He thought, “If they can do it, why can’t Ring Power.”
Traditionally Ring Power would never touch a wrench to a piece of used equipment, but seeing that Ring Power’s technicians needed more work, Randy asked them to fix up a recent dozer trade-in. The cost of the repairs ended up being more than Randy had originally anticipated, but he recouped the extra costs by renting and eventually selling the unit. The seeds of Ring Power’s used equipment business had been planted.
Soon Randy was traveling across the country to find used equipment and Ring Power had dedicated service bays to refurbish the assets. “It was like the wild west,” said Randy “I was having so much fun, I didn’t want to sleep. The greatest reward was the diverse group of contractors, used equipment dealers, and brokers I got to meet. Not to mention the introduction to the auction business.”
Randy loved the auctions and saw companies like Ritchie Bros. making money selling used equipment from Caterpillar and other OEM dealers. So, when the auctioneer Forke Brothers came up for sale, Randy and his friend from Thompson Machinery put in an offer and bought the company. Dave Ritchie and Randy competed for equipment for years, before Ritchie Bros. went public in 1998 and Randy decided to sell the company to Dave, with the final deal being decided by a coin toss.
“Flipping a coin to break a stalemate became fairly common in our industry,” said Randy. “Dave Ritchie was notorious for it.”
Randy and Dave quickly became friends and Ring Power became a key partner with Ritchie Bros., helping the auction company establish a larger presence in Florida. The Ring Power and Ritchie Bros. partnership is still as strong as ever, with the Caterpillar dealer selling hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment over the years through Ritchie Bros.’ annual premier global auction in Orlando, FL.
On behalf of the used equipment industry and Ritchie Bros…. Thank you, Randy!
